Metaphysics and Philosophy
List of Articles
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De ars athletica
Sport is a catch-all term, in which it’s interesting to distinguish between play, proper to children; spectacle, proper to entertainment; performance, proper to modern-day Belerephons – or even transhumanism; competition, proper to an artificially elitist vision of the world (as opposed to the more efficient functioning of cooperation), in which all are condemned to lose (except one); and, the only truly fundamental part, the physical exercise necessary for good health.
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Is science intrinsically scientistic?
Since science has varied considerably over the millennia, it’s no surprise that the scientistic drift that can accompany it has also varied. It is therefore impossible to define scientism without first characterizing science. Although scientists are almost never scientistic, we may well wonder whether science is not intrinsically scientistic. Once this doubt has been expressed, it’s time to try and remove it, or to confirm a certain “scientisticity” of science.
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Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
The current difficulties of these Western democracies (disavowal of politics, abstention, riots on unjustified pretexts), because they have expressly opted for exclusively representative regimes opposed to the original idea of democracy as power-sharing, could be mitigated by a better understanding of the definitions of the terms of what were once its principles, before they were reduced to a simple motto: liberty, equality, fraternity.
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Diversity and unity of religions
A “transcendent unity of religions” is problematic, as Jean Borella has repeatedly denounced. This article sets out his arguments for an analogous unity of religions and his view of what a religio perennis cannot be.
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From Democracy to Diacracy
If we can easily denounce the current democratic illusion, it’s because modern democracies have explicitly rejected all democracy in favor of representative regimes. It’s no surprise, then, that the difficulties in which they are bogged down make democracies simply impossible. And yet, going back to the fundamentals of the past millennia (Hammurabi, Solon, Aristotle…), the possibility of democracy reappears. It simply needs to be renamed “diacracy”: power belongs to everyone, and “all that’s needed” is to share it in time and space, as an exclusively representative regime has no right to pre-empt it.
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Jean Borella: An Approach and a Work
Introduction This presentation of Jean Borella’s work seems authorized by the fact that, in a “small” book entitled Symbolisme et Réalité, histoire d’une réflexion (“Symbolism and Reality, the story of a reflection”), 1997 (69 pages), he himself deemed it useful “to retrace the genesis of [his] reflection on sacred symbolism, […] in order to make […]
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Providence and Destiny
This exercise was designed to answer a real person’s questions about his or her professional and emotional life. At the very least, it provides a precise clarification of the notions of destiny and providence.
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Merit: An Illusion?
The notion of merit has clearly evolved over time, and today’s sporting competitions provide an example of how this notion has been misused. This etymological, sociological, philosophical, metaphysical, theological and spiritual investigation provides a timely challenge, especially at a time of meritocratic ideology
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To Believe, to Know, to Cognize
While we will see that, contrary to popular belief, believing and knowing are not in opposition, moreover, we will realize that knowledge and cognizance can be in opposition. This opposition is even crucial to understand what metaphysics is and how intrinsic it is to every human being.
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Was René Descartes a Cartesian? Was Isaac Newton a Newtonian?
It is now academically well established that Cartesian dualism has unfairly been put onto Descartes after his time. This paper is an opportunity to restore some truth about him, while Cartesianism definitely may be a methodology in science but no metaphysical doctrine at all.
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Chrono-Sophia – Thinking the End of Times
Thinking the end of times refers to several key questions like the type of time (cyclic or linear), the beginning of times, the announces of its end, and the eschatological destiny of individual man, the mankind and the world… that is probably some of the largest and deepest matters. The purpose of this brief paper, thus, only is to sketch what we believe are the key directions of a proper thinking of the end of times. This is written in most part after Jean Borella’s work (in particular, Marxisme et sens chrétien de l’histoire, Paris : L’Harmattan, 2016, pp. 225-285, for the first four paragraphs) and focuses and emphasizes some Christian original views on these matters.